Greenstein and Elezra Bag Big Ahead of Final Day in $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo

Three-time bracelet winners Barry Greenstein and Eli Elezra are making a strong push for increasing their already-impressive showcases. Greenstein and Elezra are among the frontrunners in Event #25: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Stud-Hi Lo 8 or Better, sitting near the top of the leaderboard with just 23 players left in contention.

The two seasoned veterans bagged the second and fourth biggest stacks respectively, trailing only Benjamin Dobson, who soared to the pole position thanks to a huge cooler in a hand versus another legend: Mike Matusow. Matusow was among the leaders on dinner break but Dobson seized the most of his stack in a boat-over-boat clash that left "The Mouth" crushed.

That setup helped Dobson improve to 595,000 and a clear lead at the end of the day. There may be a huge gap between Dobson and the rest of the field but the doyens of Greenstein (349,000) and Elezra (334,000) have been in these situations countless times. Greenstein demonstrated his lifelong experience very well during Day 2. He was on a nub for the better part of the day only to boost his stack towards the top during the latter stage.

While the tournament lost Matusow in 30th place, it's still a memorable lineup vying for the $173,528 first-place prize. The top half of the standings features bracelet winners Jesse Martin (335,000) and Georgios Sotiropoulos (231,000), along with movie star and longtime WSOP participant James Woods (210,000) who's already made a final table this year, finishing fifth in the $1,500 Dealer's Choice event.

Some of those who couldn't sneak through included Frankie O'Dell, Tim Frazin, Scott Bohlman and Brian Hastings who all made it to the last five tables but fell short of appearing on the final three.

A former champion of this very event, 2014 winner Calvin Anderson, was the last to leave the tournament without any reward. Anderson bricked his wheel draw on the stone bubble, losing his remaining chips to Andrei Kaigorodtcev. The remaining 90 players locked up chunks of cash, starting from $2,246.

However, the majority of the $804,600 prize money will be awarded on Wednesday, June 13, so make sure to come back at 2 p.m. local time to follow the PokerNews live coverage of the final outcome.

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